johnreiter
Well-known member
Partially inspired by this awesome post by QuantumBranching over on Deviantart
https://www.deviantart.com/quantumbranching/art/Arthurian-Romance-vs-Arabian-Nights-736657777
to give credit where credit is due. Much of the physics of the world are the same, but I have take a more "purest" approach, and created a world where the stories all take place EXACTLY as written (so, for example, the Abbasid Caliphate does still fall)
The current year is 750 AH (1350, if you are a Christian) and the son of Shah Ryar and Scheherazade rules the Persian Empire from his capital of Shiraz. The Empire covers not only OTL Persia, but all of Central Asia and Greater India. ITTL, the Umayyads conquered India in the 8th century, and now, 600 years later, it is well-integrated into the Muslim world. The current dynasty of Persia is descended from King Badr Basim who founded an alternate version of the Khwarazmian Empire. This empire, unlike OTL, was smart enough not to offend Genghis Khan, and so the Mongols did not invade the Middle East ITTL. Baghdad was still conquered, but by Shia Persian Muslims, who drove the Caliph into exile, but did not burn the House of Wisdom. Indeed, it remains one of the greatest centers of learning in the Muslim world. Southern Iraq is ruled by the Sultan of Baghdad, who is a vassal of the Shah.
Persia's closest ally (with whom they have recently formed a marriage alliance) is the Empire of China, currently under the dynasty of Ala ad-Din. China is TTL's equivalent of the Mughal Empire, with a Muslim elite ruling over a mostly non-Muslim population. Over one hundred years ago, the founder of the dynasty, a Chinese Muslim thief named Ala ad-Din, discovered an old brass lamp with a powerful Jinn imprisoned within, forced to serve the lamp's owner. With the Jinn he became rich and powerful, so much so that he was invited to marry one of the daughters of Emperor Lizong of Song. However, Ala ad-Din was ambitious. When Lizong died, he claimed that because he was the Emperor's son-in-law, and Lizong had no sons, he should become the next emperor, and he backed up his claim with the power of the lamp. Most of the Confuscian elite objected, and tired to overthrow him. The Jinn killed them all. Ala ad-Din replaced them with Chinese Muslims like himself. This new elite is totally loyal to the Emperor, since they know they depend on him for their survival. The Court culture is Islam, and it is now steadily trickling down, but to the discomfort of many Chinese people.
However, there have been a number of positive effects of this. Most of the well-educated Muslims in China were merchants, not bureaucrats, and when they came into power they immediately lifted the unfair imperial monopolies and restrictions of merchants, giving more power to the rising merchant towns. They also began streamlining the top-heavy and burdensome bureaucracy in order to make it more efficient. All this has led to a new age of progress and innovation in China, and the rise of a true merchant middle-class. Ala ad-Din proved to be a great emperor, a visible improvement over the decadent Lizong. One of his first acts was to use the Jinn to wipe out the Mongols and bring him Kublai Khan in chains. He then re-conquered North China without the loss of more than a handful of soldiers, which made the army happy, and even the Confucian conservatives rejoice. He then used the Jinn to rebuild the Great Wall overnight, and then to construct numerous over fortifications against future invasion, as well as roads and other public works. He did all this without sending out conscription orders or raising taxes (in fact, after telling the Jinn to fill the treasury with gold and silver, Ala ad-Din massively lowered the taxes), which made him VERY popular with the peasants, despite his strange foreign religion. The existence of the lamp is a secret passed down from one emperor to the next. The official story is that China is ruled by a dynasty of mighty sorcerers.
There are a number of small sultanates and emirates in the Middle East, which act as a buffer between the Persian and Egyptian spheres. Egypt has done a bit better ITTL. The spirit of rationalism that flourished under the Abbasids never completely died out, and al-Ghazali never reached the levels of popularity he held IOTL. Saladin, after establishing the Ayyubid Sultanate, constructed a new Library of Alexandria in Egypt to act as a rival to the (then Turkish-controlled) House of Wisdom in Baghdad, and it remains to this day. The Mamluke Dynasty is still in power, but with some changes. Baibars reigned twice as long, and had different children. So far, the first three sultans of Egypt have been much wiser and nobler rulers than the OTL Mamlukes. The Sultanate is slightly smaller than IOTL, having lost some northern territory, as will be mentioned later.
The strongest ally of Egypt is Morocco, which still controls the rest of North Africa, as well as Iberia (Charlemagne liberated Iberia from the Muslims, but the Christian kingdom of Spain only lasted 300 years before being re-conquered by the Muslims in the mid 11th century). Morocco has not been ruled by a sultan for nearly 150 years, however. Instead, it is a Magiarchy, where an elite class of magicians rules. The most powerful of all the magicians governs Morocco as first-among-equals. When the archmage dies, any magicians who want to claim the throne must pass a series of dangerous trials to prove they are as strong as the previous archmage (the current archmage can destroy an entire army with lighting thrown from his hand, or obliterate a city with a bolt of fire from the sky, and has a magic planisphere which lets him see anything on Earth). Morocco is a close friend of Egypt, and the daughter of the current archmage is married to the sultan. The Moroccans have already discovered the new world, when magicians walked across the Atlantic in search of the tomb of Solomon. However, although this means the maps of the world are much more accurate, no ships have yet been invented that can reach the new world, so exploration is limited to a handful of venturesome magicians.
The Byzantine Empire has not done as well as IOTL. First, they lost the Persian wars decisively and were even conquered by Persia for a time. This butterflied away the conquests of Justinian the Great. Eventually, they did get free, only to be conquered again in the 1050s by the Arab Empire of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, who placed one of his sons on the throne as Emperor of Byzantium. After the fall of the Arab Empire, Constantinople was captured by the Seljurk Turks, leaving the Empire with nothing but Greece. However, it's an ill wind that blows no good. When the Crusades happened ITTL, Byzantium was spared the sack of Constantinople by the Venetians, since they didn't own it at the time. In the late 14th century, under a particularly brilliant general, Byzantium rebounded. They re-conquered Constantinople, as well as all of Asia Minor, and kicked the Mamlukes out of Syria, annexing the surviving Crusader kingdoms. The conquest of the Turks by the Byzantines has butterflied away the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Osman and his sons all died on Greek swords
Because the conquests of Justinian never happened, the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Vandal Kingdom lasted longer. The Vandals were eventually conquered by the Umayyads, and Charlemagne conquered the Ostrogoths, taking all of Italy into his empire.
https://www.deviantart.com/quantumbranching/art/Arthurian-Romance-vs-Arabian-Nights-736657777
to give credit where credit is due. Much of the physics of the world are the same, but I have take a more "purest" approach, and created a world where the stories all take place EXACTLY as written (so, for example, the Abbasid Caliphate does still fall)
The current year is 750 AH (1350, if you are a Christian) and the son of Shah Ryar and Scheherazade rules the Persian Empire from his capital of Shiraz. The Empire covers not only OTL Persia, but all of Central Asia and Greater India. ITTL, the Umayyads conquered India in the 8th century, and now, 600 years later, it is well-integrated into the Muslim world. The current dynasty of Persia is descended from King Badr Basim who founded an alternate version of the Khwarazmian Empire. This empire, unlike OTL, was smart enough not to offend Genghis Khan, and so the Mongols did not invade the Middle East ITTL. Baghdad was still conquered, but by Shia Persian Muslims, who drove the Caliph into exile, but did not burn the House of Wisdom. Indeed, it remains one of the greatest centers of learning in the Muslim world. Southern Iraq is ruled by the Sultan of Baghdad, who is a vassal of the Shah.
Persia's closest ally (with whom they have recently formed a marriage alliance) is the Empire of China, currently under the dynasty of Ala ad-Din. China is TTL's equivalent of the Mughal Empire, with a Muslim elite ruling over a mostly non-Muslim population. Over one hundred years ago, the founder of the dynasty, a Chinese Muslim thief named Ala ad-Din, discovered an old brass lamp with a powerful Jinn imprisoned within, forced to serve the lamp's owner. With the Jinn he became rich and powerful, so much so that he was invited to marry one of the daughters of Emperor Lizong of Song. However, Ala ad-Din was ambitious. When Lizong died, he claimed that because he was the Emperor's son-in-law, and Lizong had no sons, he should become the next emperor, and he backed up his claim with the power of the lamp. Most of the Confuscian elite objected, and tired to overthrow him. The Jinn killed them all. Ala ad-Din replaced them with Chinese Muslims like himself. This new elite is totally loyal to the Emperor, since they know they depend on him for their survival. The Court culture is Islam, and it is now steadily trickling down, but to the discomfort of many Chinese people.
However, there have been a number of positive effects of this. Most of the well-educated Muslims in China were merchants, not bureaucrats, and when they came into power they immediately lifted the unfair imperial monopolies and restrictions of merchants, giving more power to the rising merchant towns. They also began streamlining the top-heavy and burdensome bureaucracy in order to make it more efficient. All this has led to a new age of progress and innovation in China, and the rise of a true merchant middle-class. Ala ad-Din proved to be a great emperor, a visible improvement over the decadent Lizong. One of his first acts was to use the Jinn to wipe out the Mongols and bring him Kublai Khan in chains. He then re-conquered North China without the loss of more than a handful of soldiers, which made the army happy, and even the Confucian conservatives rejoice. He then used the Jinn to rebuild the Great Wall overnight, and then to construct numerous over fortifications against future invasion, as well as roads and other public works. He did all this without sending out conscription orders or raising taxes (in fact, after telling the Jinn to fill the treasury with gold and silver, Ala ad-Din massively lowered the taxes), which made him VERY popular with the peasants, despite his strange foreign religion. The existence of the lamp is a secret passed down from one emperor to the next. The official story is that China is ruled by a dynasty of mighty sorcerers.
There are a number of small sultanates and emirates in the Middle East, which act as a buffer between the Persian and Egyptian spheres. Egypt has done a bit better ITTL. The spirit of rationalism that flourished under the Abbasids never completely died out, and al-Ghazali never reached the levels of popularity he held IOTL. Saladin, after establishing the Ayyubid Sultanate, constructed a new Library of Alexandria in Egypt to act as a rival to the (then Turkish-controlled) House of Wisdom in Baghdad, and it remains to this day. The Mamluke Dynasty is still in power, but with some changes. Baibars reigned twice as long, and had different children. So far, the first three sultans of Egypt have been much wiser and nobler rulers than the OTL Mamlukes. The Sultanate is slightly smaller than IOTL, having lost some northern territory, as will be mentioned later.
The strongest ally of Egypt is Morocco, which still controls the rest of North Africa, as well as Iberia (Charlemagne liberated Iberia from the Muslims, but the Christian kingdom of Spain only lasted 300 years before being re-conquered by the Muslims in the mid 11th century). Morocco has not been ruled by a sultan for nearly 150 years, however. Instead, it is a Magiarchy, where an elite class of magicians rules. The most powerful of all the magicians governs Morocco as first-among-equals. When the archmage dies, any magicians who want to claim the throne must pass a series of dangerous trials to prove they are as strong as the previous archmage (the current archmage can destroy an entire army with lighting thrown from his hand, or obliterate a city with a bolt of fire from the sky, and has a magic planisphere which lets him see anything on Earth). Morocco is a close friend of Egypt, and the daughter of the current archmage is married to the sultan. The Moroccans have already discovered the new world, when magicians walked across the Atlantic in search of the tomb of Solomon. However, although this means the maps of the world are much more accurate, no ships have yet been invented that can reach the new world, so exploration is limited to a handful of venturesome magicians.
The Byzantine Empire has not done as well as IOTL. First, they lost the Persian wars decisively and were even conquered by Persia for a time. This butterflied away the conquests of Justinian the Great. Eventually, they did get free, only to be conquered again in the 1050s by the Arab Empire of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, who placed one of his sons on the throne as Emperor of Byzantium. After the fall of the Arab Empire, Constantinople was captured by the Seljurk Turks, leaving the Empire with nothing but Greece. However, it's an ill wind that blows no good. When the Crusades happened ITTL, Byzantium was spared the sack of Constantinople by the Venetians, since they didn't own it at the time. In the late 14th century, under a particularly brilliant general, Byzantium rebounded. They re-conquered Constantinople, as well as all of Asia Minor, and kicked the Mamlukes out of Syria, annexing the surviving Crusader kingdoms. The conquest of the Turks by the Byzantines has butterflied away the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Osman and his sons all died on Greek swords
Because the conquests of Justinian never happened, the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Vandal Kingdom lasted longer. The Vandals were eventually conquered by the Umayyads, and Charlemagne conquered the Ostrogoths, taking all of Italy into his empire.
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